Romeo and his Juliet
by boshrocks
Summary: What new scheme for inter house friendships have those teachers come up with? A muggle play and some unusual casting change the perspective of many. Way better than it sounds, i promise. read adn review please
1. The Play

Harry and Ron watched in concern as Hermione toyed with her food. She hadn't eaten in a few days and they were very concerned.

"Mione, you have to eat something." Harry told her unlistening ears.

"I'm not hungry." She mumbled.

"Attention students!" Dumbledore called. The hall fell silent. "I have an announcement. We've all been a bit preoccupied recently, what with the recent war and everything, but now that the war is over we feel that we need to kick back a bit. Professors Flitwick and Snape and McGonagall had the idea to produce a play."

Several students laughed. McGonagall now got up.

"The play we have chosen was written by one of the greatest playwrights ever born. Perhaps you have heard of him? His name was Shakespeare."

"Just as long as it's not Romeo and Juliet." Harry mumbled.

"The play is Romeo and Juliet."

"Oh Merlin." Harry moaned. Next to him Ron snorted.

"Our choice of leads are as follows; Romeo will be played by Draco Malfoy, Juliet by Hermione Granger."

"WHAT??!!" Hermione stood up quickly and then got a head rush and fainted.

Draco Malfoy caught her since he was nearest. A moment later she woke up and saw whose arms she was in. She blushed but made no move to get up.

You see the teachers had been more observant than the students. They had noticed a change in the relationship between Hermione and Draco. No longer did they seem to loathe each other. Times seemed to have changed since the infamous punch and now hormones seemed to have kicked in. The teachers noticed what their friends had not. They saw the glances and heard the sighs. They noted that Draco no longer called Hermione a 'mudblood' and the fact that she hadn't eaten in a few days and would just toy with her food and watch Draco. They noticed and they planned. And they decided to do something about it.

"Ahem!" everyone turned their attention away from Hermione and Draco and focussed on McGonagall. "The reasoning for this unusual casting is as follows. The way we see it, Gryffindor and Slytherin are very much like the families of Romeo and Juliet. Therefore the parts of the other family members will be taken by members of those houses. Tybalt shall be played by Harry Potter, the Nurse by Ginny Weasley and so on. The full cast list shall be posted on the notice board outside the hall."

She sat down again.

Harry turned to Ron who was busy pulling Hermione out of Draco's arms. "I can't believe I have to get killed by him."

"I can't believe I have to kiss him." Hermione sank back onto the bench. Draco frowned at her from behind.

Ron tried to look sympathetic as his friends sunk into gloom, but he couldn't. He let out a huge guffaw of laughter. "I'm sorry," he said as they glared at him. "This is a recipe for disaster… and it's gonna be hilarious."

Although she wouldn't admit it, Hermione was pleased for the first time that Harry couldn't do occlumency. This was just going to have to be one of those things she had to keep secret from her best friends. Truth was…she was quite looking forward to being Juliet.


	2. The Kiss

Rehearsals got underway for Romeo and Juliet. Draco was surprisingly good at acting and Hermione even found talent she didn't know she had.

She was dreading the kissing scene though. Eventually it pitched up, somewhat later than they expected; they had almost finished plotting the play before the Kiss came around. In order to keep it special and to avoid the distracting glares from all other sources, McGonagall had said that they would be doing that scene with only the three of them, with Flitwick tagging along. The Kiss was the thing McGonagall decided probably needed the most work too, considering who it was. They weren't going to show anyone that part of the scene until the first performance.

"Oh then dear saint, let lips do what hands do." Draco slinked towards her.

_Oh god, here it comes. Be cool. You're about to kiss your worst enemy. Just don't tell Harry and Ron about this, but you're actually looking forward to it. Oh Merlin. _

"Thus from my lips, by yours, my sin is purged." They looked at each other for a moment and then he closed the gap.

Two hours later Hermione entered the common room as inconspicuously as she could.

"Hold it right there!" Harry and Ron's voices said from beside the fire, stopping her in her tracks as she tried to sneak past.

"Anything wrong?"

"Rehearsal should have ended an hour ago. Where have you been?"

"Draco wanted to run lines with me. Don't look at me like that, Harry."

"Draco? Since when do you use his first name?"

"He's stopped calling me Granger. And mudblood. It's only polite to return the favour."

Her friends shared a look. "If I didn't know better, I'd say our little Juliet has developed a liking for her Romeo." Harry said.

"And I'd say you're losing your mind." Hermione snapped.

"Oh come on. We've all seen how you look at each other during rehearsals."

"Ronald, we're acting."

"Yeah. Romeo and Juliet. Possibly the most romantic story in the history of the world."

"I didn't pick the play!"

"But you seem to be having a wonderful time doing it."

"Herm, we think you should pull out of the play."

Hermione glared at her friends. "You don't get it, do you? Ever since I met you two, I've had to ignore what I want to do; in favour of bailing you out of whatever trouble you happen to have got yourself into that week. Now, for the first time in my life, I'm being seen for something that isn't work, or being the only girl in the golden trio. Truth is, I love acting. And I like Draco when he's acting. He's not Draco when he's acting, he's Romeo."

"You actually like him."

"Yeah, he's not the character, he's Malfoy."

"Boys, boys, boys. You don't understand anything. For years I've been devoting my life to the pair of you. Marking your homework, being by your side when Harry decides to be a hero. You know it's true, Harry. And lately I've realised that it's not worth it."

"What's brought all this on?" Ron looked very puzzled.

"Why did you stick it out so long?"

"Guys, I love you, but you don't appreciate me. You've used me for years, and I'm sick of it."

"Hermione we don't use you."

"If you were really my friends, you would support me in this play."

"We do. What we don't support, is your relationship with Malfoy."

"Get it through your thick skulls, there is no relationship between me and Malfoy!" she hadn't realised that she was shouting.

"Not yet, perhaps, but this play is ruining everything."

"Just because I'm not conforming to your little chocolate box world, you think you have the right to have a go at me?"

Ron looked at her in fury. "When you threaten our group, I'll do whatever I damn well choose!"

"I'm not threatening anything. You are, and you don't even know it."

"So that's it? We give up? No. We never give up."

As Hermione looked at Harry a tear rolled down her cheek. "This time we do." She turned on her heel and ran up the stairs to her dorm.

"Well, a fine mess you boys made of that." Ginny said emerging from the shadows. "You boys are idiots. Friends don't judge. Friends don't deliver ultimatums."

"She turned on us."

"No, you turned your backs to her. If you were her real friends, you would support her, no matter what. In second year she stuck by you, when all the evidence was pointing at you that you were the heir of Slytherin. Everyone was telling her to leave you, and distance herself from you before she was attacked. But she didn't. She has stood by your side through everything. And now you won't stand by hers. Think about what she's going through right now."

"What have we done?"

"Even if she was completely in love with him, you should be standing by her. You've let yourselves get blinded by this petty squabble with Malfoy. Do us all a favour and get over it. He has."

"Do you think we really have lost her?"

"You don't understand how friendship works. So yes, I think you have. Unless you fix it and get over yourselves and your stupid male hang-ups, you won't get her back."

Ginny followed Hermione up the stairs to the girls dorms.

"Geez, what's wrong with all the girls today? Parvati Patil gave me a really hard time earlier because I was eating too noisily at dinner. And Lavender called me a bastard for asking her for divination help. I mean it wasn't like I was teasing her about her woman's troubles; did I mention it's her week? …although teasing them is a lot of fun."

"I think they're all surfing the crimson wave at the moment." Harry had a private little chuckle at his friends' expense.


End file.
